Association of cerebral spinal fluid copper imbalance in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Qiao Yi Chen; Peng Wu; Ting Wen; Xing Qin; Ronghua Zhang; Rui Jia; Jiaoting Jin; Fangfang Hu; Xiaoge Xie; Jingxia Dang

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2022.970711

Association of cerebral spinal fluid copper imbalance in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Front Aging Neurosci. 2022 Nov 17:14:970711. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.970711. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Qiao Yi Chen¹, Peng Wu¹, Ting Wen¹, Xing Qin², Ronghua Zhang², Rui Jia², Jiaoting Jin², Fangfang Hu², Xiaoge Xie¹, Jingxia Dang²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
² Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.

Abstract

A plethora of environmental risk factors has been persistently implicated in the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), including metal/metalloids. This study aimed to examine potential associations between cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) metal/metalloids and ALS risks. CSF concentrations of copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), manganese (Mn), and iron (Fe) in ALS (spinal- and bulbar-onset) patients and controls were measured using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Results from this study revealed marked differences between control, spinal-onset, and bulbar-onset groups. We report that Cu levels were lower in the ALS and spinal-onset groups compared to the control group. Ni level were higher in the spinal-onset group compared to the control and bulbar-onset groups. In addition, associations between CSF metal/metalloid levels with disease severity, sex, and serum triglycerides were also examined to broach the potential relevance of neurotoxic metal/metalloids in ALS disease heterogeneity.

Keywords: ALS; CSF; copper; metal/metalloids; neurodegenerative.